Prue Myer Sub-Fund

The Prue Myer Sub-Fund was established in 2011 and reflects the desire of her daughter Jo Baevski and other family members to honour Prudence Myer, a social justice stalwart of one of Australia’s leading philanthropic families.

The Sub-Fund supports projects for immigrants and refugees and other disadvantaged girls and young women that:

provide them with positive mentoring opportunities;

improve their academic and educational outcomes;

encourage their engagement and participation in political life.

After conclusion of a funded project, organisations are required to submit a Project Report and Financial Acquittal.

2017 Prue Myer Sub-Fund Grants

This project will provide financial literacy training for refugee women from African, Burmese and Iraqi backgrounds leading to a train-the-trainer model. Women will be able to take greater financial control of their lives, leading to financial security for themselves, their families and more opportunities for engaging in the wider community. The program will coincide with the homework club in St Albans where many of the women currently bring their children. The program has two parts: teaching financial literacy followed by mentoring to utilise the skills learnt.

Working with trainers from Women’s Circus in Footscray, the program will engage young women from St Joseph’s Flexible Learning Centre in North Melbourne and train them in circus skills. The school will work with qualified trainers from Women’s Circus to engage disengaged students in learning that is hands-on, meaningful and enjoyable, with the intention of showing them that they are able to achieve anything they set their mind to.

2016 Prue Myer Sub-Fund Grants

Creative self-development programs for girls aged 8-12 living in the Banksia Gardens Public Housing Estate and for girls aged 10–14 from the wider Broadmeadows area. Mentorship is a strong component of the project, with female community leaders living on the Estate trained as supports and older girls mentoring younger participants. The programs provide a fun, safe place for girls to develop skills and confidence.

Mentoring a group of young girls in VCE from a CALD [Culturally and Linguistically Diverse] background, recent migrant and refugees who have just arrived into Australia and have been in the country for less than five years with tutoring and education support including the assistance of a multicultural translator. The development of small activities that will allow them to socialise and connect with their peers and in addition, the arrangement of information sessions with parents to clarify the education system as well as ways for CALD parents to support their daughters towards obtaining their goals in employment and education.

River Nile Learning Centre, North Melbourne – Welfare of Women Coming out of Detention

$6,558 grant

A Welfare Co-ordinator will manage the growing number of students who are newly arrived asylum seeker and refugee women who have recently been released from detention. Without this welfare support, these women’s personal issues will so overwhelm them that they will be unable to attend classes and/or engage in their studies and personal development.

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.”– Eleanor Roosevelt, 1958